Rumor: Some Haswell CPUs to have 64MB onboard memory

We've been hearing for some time that Haswell, the successor to Intel's Ivy Bridge processor, will feature much-improved integrated graphics, but details have been few and far between. Well, Charlie Demerjian over at SemiAccurate has now dug up some fresh dirt on the subject, and what he says is pretty interesting.

According to Demerjian, "GT3 variants" of Haswell will have a whopping 64MB of memory sitting right on the CPU package, next to the processor die. That memory will purportedly be enough to accommodate a frame buffer, which should help alleviate performance bottlenecks tied to the main memory interface. Earlier reports suggest desktop variants of Haswell will have a dual-channel DDR3 memory controller, and there's only so much bandwidth you can get out of that.

In another story posted earlier this year, Demerjian said Haswell's integrated GPU will have five times the shader performance of Sandy Bridge's IGP. Coupled with the onboard memory, that ought to make for some substantial performance improvements—provided this is all true, of course.

Haswell is the next tock on Intel's roadmap: a processor based on the same 22-nm fab process as Ivy Bridge, but with a new-and-improved architecture. It should be out some time next year.